I haven't seen The Last Jedi yet, should I listen to Podcast or wait?

Little surprised that BC and AA weren't higher on our WRs.  Agree with oline concerns. Agree, hope Shea gets to play, cuz we need another QB. 

happened to LaVert Hill in the bowl game?  I saw him for a couple of plays and then no more.  Was he injured?

nobody has called out Riley Bullough's douche-ie tweet about Winovich returning next year?

There are 2 reasons a SW movie is good (or bad): It's either a good *movie*(good plot, writing, dialog, character devel, compelling narrative) or it's good b/c it's SW (jedi, lightsabers, space battles, storm troopers, the force etc).

The prequels were bad *movies*. There is no debate about that. They are epically cringeworthy in all cases. People like them b/c they have awesome SW scenes: lightsaber duels, more jedi, more force discussion, epic model CG space battles. 

What made Ep 4 & 5 among the best films ever made is that they were BOTH great movies and SW movies. Ep6 people complain b/c Ewoks and DSII, but I'd say that they same is true for that if it's true for the other 2. I assume Brian thinks Ep6 is hot garbage as well b/c it's a rip off of Ep4. But at this point everything (incl Ep4) is a rip off of the "chosen one" monotheist hero narrative and Westerns/WWII movies that came out of Post war hollywood.

Obvisouly Ep 7 followed the standard formula and thus everyone thinks it's a rip off of Ep4 (agree to a certain extent, but IDK it's a good formula that works for literally thousands of years). I mean, it's star wars, sit down and have fun. No one goes into SW thinking "OK I really need to focus on character relationships and plot to make I understand motivations" - like it's drama/mystery. I'm sure Brian doesn't enjoy the Marvel movies too much either.

However, Ep8 was different - there was a ton going on - new characters you didn't know if they were good/bad/indifferent - each main character had an arc where they didn't do the right thing (but for good reasons) surprizing developments, great dialog, foreshadowing, character devel, good spots of comedy (maybe too much at times). It was a great movie that challeneged assumptions about hereos and Jedi. Would Rey join Kylo? would Kylo join her? Snoke WTF?! Is she good/bad/no shi is good! Some didn't like that, but it was necessary for this series to move beyond what we've seen before - not jsut in SW movies but in epic heroic movies in general. Like Guardians and some of the Marvel movies. 

As far as the whole "not my Luke" bullshit. It's that's not a snowflake take than nothing is. Don't forget - Luke's own father was Vader. Luke in Jedi succumbed to the Emperor and found his father. He isn't Yoda/Obi-wan/any pre-quel Jedi that never has succumbed to temptation and does the right thing every fucking time. Shit, that's boring! You want to complain - sure super Leia was meh at best. some of the comedy broke the 4th wall too much. BB-8 saving the day 6 times, once driving a ATST. The one thing Hoeg got right, IMO, is that they didn't have an overaching plan for the trilogy or at least a common writer/director that could make a cohesive trilogy. As mucha s people complains about Lucas, he did have an overarching plan (that was fluid and changed and that he got great help from Kasdan and others on) that bridged them together. In this case, they gave JJ 7, and said Rian - do whatever you want with 8, now 9 can be anything. Not a geat way to develop a cohesive story across 3 movies. There is literally NOTHING to anticipate for ep9. Where ep7 left as all wanting more (as the originals did) ep8 felt like the end of the trilogy - which made for a great movie, but doesn't make for a cohesive trilogy.

tl;dr: this has nothing . to do with M football - so read it or don't based on that

I love Mo Hurst.  Really, I do.  But it seems pretty arrogant to declare him the "best DT in program history".  As Harbaugh has said, any time you compare things you run the risk of doing a disservice to them.  I can think of at least two DTs (Mark Messner and Alan Branch) who certainly belong in the conversation. 

what does "Bredeson needs a jump" mean?

As someone who really loved The Force Awakens, and still enjoy it after numerous rewatches, I was let down by the Last Jedi. I think Richard Hoeg did a pretty good job summarizing my feelings on it, especially the notes on the plot. I think of individual moments of that movie and my god there are some amazing ones. A few other moments didn't hit home with me though, and that is fine. But I am less passionate about this movie than any other time I've seen a Star Wars and that reflects poorly. I don't even have the energy to bash it. 

And to me, it was because it got back to the roots of the original film: this is a western in space with some samurai flick dashed in (which naturally, samurai films have always overlapped with westerns so why not?). Luke was cast as the classic old gunfighter who used to be able to stare down a whole town full of crooked marshalls and leave 'em all laying, but he's lived too long and made mistakes and now just wants to be left alone with his mule. But finally, he is convinced to ride in to town and save the day. One last ride for the old gunfighter. God I love that stuff. He even got to go off into the sun like John Wayne. 

A lot of the reaction the The Last Jedi, is similar to Empire Strikes Back when it came out.  For example, people insist that Kylo was lying to Rey about her parents to turn her.  People said the exact same thing about the "No, I am your father." moment.

I'm not saying the movie isn't without flaws, but I can recognize flaws and still enjoy it.  There's this weird thing nowadays on the internet where it seems like you're not allowed to like something unless it's "perfect," which is impossible to acheive.

And quite frankly I feel like a majority of people LIKE TLJ, and it's more of a (very) vocal minority that doesn't.

The luke skywalker in the last jedi is the same character as the originals but people only choose to remember their childhood luke.  He was always a torn character, wrecked by self doubt who had little to no training, had no idea how to train jedis and failed at it and his old doubts came back. Luke had like 2 hours of competence in the originals. 

I mean come on. COME ON. George Lucas spent years weirdly fiddling with the original three movies and adding scenes for no reason in terrible 90s CGI, then pumped out three awful prequels and it didn't kill Star Wars. A new movie that departs from the first in it's series (the same way Empire departed from Star Wars, but in a different unique way this time) isn't going to kill the town.

If you're an older person who grew up with the originals and didn't like the way Han got killed in TFA and the way Luke was portrayed in TLJ, ask yourself this: when you saw the originals, was Ben Kenobi your favorite guy? Was Yoda? NO! You were a Han fan or a Luke fan, because they were the dynamic young characters, not the old fuddy duddies who screwed everything up and let the bad guys take over before your boys flew in and saved the day.

Well, that's Star Wars in a nut shell. The old characters are there to help the young ones learn and grow, but the young save the day. Luke's old and beardy and full of regret for mistakes, he can't be the flame that ignites the fires of hope. That's for the young. That's been the story since the first movie.